Railway-crossing.



H. E. BURNS, RAILWAY CROSSING. APPLICATIQN FILED FEB. 17, I916-Iatented. July 18, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

H. E. BURNS.

RAILWAY CROSSING.

APPLICATION FILED FEB-17,1916.

Patented July 18, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

. {Zea/card nowann a. minus, or ST. LOUIS, urssouar.

RAILWAY-CROSSING.

' Specification or Letters Patent.

Patented July 18,1916.

Application filed February 17, 1916.. Serial. No. 78,915.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HOWARD E. BURNS, a citizen of the United States,residing at St. Louis, Missouri, have invented a certaln new and usefulImprovement in .Railway-Cross' The crossings that are now in general usein rural districts are formed from" heavy planks which are spikeddirectly to the track ties.

of the type mentioned is that it cannot be taken up and relaid withoutliability of destroying some or all of the planks that constitute thecrossing, owing to the fact that the planks are held in position bylarge spikes which generally cannot be withdrawn Without splitting ordamaging the planks.

As it is necessary to take up some crosslngs frequently to keep thetrack in repair, and

as one or more of the planks are generally destroyed every time saidcrossings are taken up, the cost of maintenance of plank crossings isvery high. Furthermore, con

siderable time and labor is required to install a plank crossing, and asthe planks soon rot or decay, the life of a plank crossing is generallyonly a few years. Solid concrete crossings are sometimes used at theintersection of a railway track and a pavedn'oad or street, but a solidconcrete crossing is "ery expensive to install, and as it forms a hardspot in the track, the track rails are liable to break when they aresubjected to the load of a passing train. Attempts have been made toform a permanent crossing, by laying bricks or other hard pavingmaterial on the bed of the track, but such crossings have not provedsatisfactory on account of the fact that the movement produced inthevbed of the track by a passing train or by a frost causes the bricksor other hard paving material to work loose an break up.

One object of my invention is to provide a railway crossing that is moredurable:

than a plank crossing and which is so con- 'structed that it can betaken up and relaid easily and without liability of injuring ordestroying the crossing.

- the track One objectionable feature of a crossing Another objectis toprovide a permanent railway crossing that will not interfere with thenatural wave motion of the track rails or be affected by movement in thebed of produced by a passing train or by afrost.

Another object is to provide a permanent railway crossing that'ca'n belaid directly on the track ties that supportthe rails. And

" still another object is to provide a permanent crossing that can bebuilt and installed at the same cost, or a lower cost, than a plankcrossing and which can be taken up and relaid in less time than a plankcrossmg.

my invention will be hereinafter pointed out.

Briefly stated, my invention consists in a I I railway crossing composedof a number of durable members combined in such a man? ner that theyproduce a flexible roadway which is not aflected by movement in the bedof the track or movement of the track rails. The members that constitutethe crossing are combined in such a manner that the entire crossing, ora portion of it, can be taken up and relaid quickly, and in thepreferred form of my invention, as herein shown, the said membersconsist .of oblong-shaped bloeks'that are held together Otherobject'sand desirablelfeatures of by a means which permits said blocks to moveindependently of each other sufficiently to impart to the completecrossing a certain degree of flexibility longitudinally of the track andtransversely of the track. It is immaterial, so far as my'broad idea isconcerned, what the members constituting the crossing are formed of, solong as they are formed of material that is capable of successfullywithstanding great wear and hard usage, and while I have hereinillustrated several ways of connecting said members together, I wish itto be understood that my invention is not limited to a railway crossingof the particular construction herein illustrated.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a top plan view of a railway crossingconstructed in accordance with my invention. 2 is a longitudinalsectional view of said crossing, taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Figs. 3and 4 are transverse sectional views, taken on the lines 33 and 4 -4 ofFig. 1; and Figs. 5 and 6. are transverse sectional views,

' the track ties illustrating slight modifications of my inwithoutdeparting-from the spirit of my The members A are mounted on 1 inparallel relation to the track rails 2 and in transverse alinement witheach other,- as shown in Fig. 1, thus forming a number of parallellongitudinal sections, each of which is made up of a plurality of shortblocks A. The blocks A are preferably made long enough so that eachblock will rest upon two track-ties, and the blocks that constitute eachseparate longitudinal section of the crossing are connected together insuch a manner that they can move vertically slightly with relation toeach other, but cannot separate or pull apart longitudinally. Thevarious longitudinal sections of the crossing are also preferablyconnected together in such a manner that said sections cannot separatelaterally, and the entire structure is anchored to the. rails or to thetrack ties so as to prevent it from moving'bodily with relation to theties on which it rests. convenient way ofronnecting the blocks ormembers -A constitut1ng one longitudinal invention.

section together is shown lnFig. 1, wherein the reference character 3designates long rods or bolts, each of which passes through a pluralityof blocks A that are arranged in longitudinal alinement with each other,the crossing shown in Fig. 1 comprising seven longitudinal sections,five of which are arranged between the two rails and the remainingsections being arranged outside of the rails. The blocks A are providedwith holes 4 through which the rods 3 pass,

and the diameter of the hole 4 in each block great enough to permit theblock to move slightly in a vertical direction with reference to the rod3 that passes through said hole. Consequently, if one or more of thetrack ties drops slightly, due to displacement of the bedof the track,the blocks or members A that rest on said ties can move downwardly withrelation to the remaining blocks A of the crossing. Likewise, if one ormore of the track ties move upwardly, due to displacement of the bed ofthe track, the blocks A supported by said ties will move upwardly withrelation to the remaining blocks of the crossing.

- The means shown in Figs. 1 to 4: for tying the various longitudinalsections of the crossing together consists of a plurality oftransversely-disposed, bars 5 that are arranged between blocks A andwhich are provided with open ,shown in Fig. 3, so as in Fig. 1.

One.

from being unsupported at any time.

the abutting ends of the ings 5 through which'the longitudinallydisposedrods 3 pass, the ends of said bars 5 preferably fitting between theheads and the base flanges of the track rails 2, as

to prevent the crossing from moving, bodily upwardly OK the trackties 1. The two longitudinal sections that are arranged outside of thetrack rails are connected to the portion of the crossing that liesbetween the rails by means of short bars 6 that pass downwardlyunderneath the base flanges of the rails, as shown in Fig. 3, said bars6 having openings for receiving the longitudinally-disposed .bolts 3that pass through the blocks of the two sections of the crossing thatlie adjacent. each of the rails 2. Spacing devices 7, which arepreferably formed of wood, are arranged between the ends of thetransversely-disposed bars 5, so as parallelrelation, theadvantage offorming the spacing devices 7 from wood being that they can be cut oileasily during the. operation of installing the crossing so that theywill fit snugly between the end of a rail joint or angle bar 8 and isarranged adjacent the rail joint, as shown If desired, each of theblocks A may be provided on one of its longitudinal edges with a rib 9and on its other longitudinal edge with a groove 10, so that when theblocks are arranged in operative position the blocks in the variouslongitudinal sections of the crossing will be interlocked with eachother, but this is not essential to the successful operation of mycrossing. s

A crossing of the construction above described is durable and can beused for a long period, as it is made up of members formed from concreteor other suitable material that is capable of successfully withstandinggreat wear and rough usage. It can be installed easily and it can betaken up and relaid without liability of damaging or destroying any ofthe members A that make up the crossing; if it becomes necessary toraise one of the rail joints, or repair one portion of the track, thiscan be accomplished easily by taking up only one or two sections of thecrossing, it being possible to remove any section of the crossing bywithdrawing the longitudinal rod 3 on which the members A constitutingsaid section are strung. The crossing is flexible enough so that it willnot interfere with the natural wave motion of the track rails, andanother desirable feature thatresults from this characteristic of thecrossing is that all portions of same will rise or fall with the bed ofthe track, and thus prevent any portion of the crossirig 11 other words,the members A that constitute the crossing are tied together in such amannor that they cannot pull apart or separate,

the cross bar 5 that rise and fall with the track ties on which of eachrail being tied together by cross bars permanent road materials,

said members are free to well adapted for use on a curved track and itscost of maintenance is ve low, on account of the fact that it is bui tup of small unitsthat can be replaced easily.

While I prefer to run a rod or cable through the members that make upone but nevertheless,

they rest, thereby eliminating the possibility' of the crossing beingdisrupted by an upheaval of the bed ofthe track,or from being broken bya heavy load passing over a portion of the crossin the track had receed, as-mightoccur if the essential that the members'constituting eachcrossing was composed of members'rigidly\.long1Minal section beconnected together connected together. 1n thls particular manner, so lonas said- While I prefer to fill the entire space bememb rs are preventedfrom pulling apart tween the track rails with members A, this endwlse.For example, the members A that is not essential, as a good crossing canbe are arranged in transverse alinement with d b arrangingtwolongitudlnal ti ns each other can be connected together in the inproximity to each rail, as shown in Fig. manner illustrated in Fig. 6,or in any other 5, each longitudinal section being made u su table way,and means can be arranged of a plurality of blocks or members A at theends of the crosslng to prevent the strung on longitudinally-disposedrods 3 members A fromshlftmg longitudinally of and the two sections onthe opposite sides track- The $511116 result Could be 300011!- phshed bycoupling the members of .the out- 6 that pass downwardly underneath thebase Slde o g t d nal sections together and hold flange f th il ipractically th Same ng the 1ntermed1ate longitudmal sectlons manner asthe cross bar 6 of the crossing 1n posltlonby means of the cross rod 11shown in Figs. 1 to 4, the space between the shown 1n Fig. 6. V twoinner longitudinal sections being filled When the crossing is made verylong, one with track ballast, or any other suitable maor more portionsof the crossing are conterial. structed in such a manner that they canbe In Fig. 6 I have illustrated still another taken up so as to to permt gi iform of my invention, wherein'the various nally-dlsposed t1e rodsor cables 3 to be longitudinal sections of the crossing are tied l hmWn, For example, 1n a long crosstogether by cross bars 11 that passthrough eyes in devices 12 which project =downwardly from the undersidesof the members A, said devices 12 either passing through holes in saidmembers or being permanently embedded in the members A, if said membersare formed from concrete or other plastic material that can be moldedinto shape. A railway crossing of the construction above described ismore durable than a'plank crossing and it can be maintained at a much ofa number of members A arranged in transverse alinement with each otherand connected by a cross rod 11, as indicated in Fig. 6, the portions ofthe crossing lying on opposite sides of same being made up in the mannerillustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. By withdrawing the cross rod 11, one setof blocks A extending transversely of the track could be taken up andthereafter the longitudinal bolts 3 in the other-portions of the fromwhich the bed of longitudinal section of the crossing, it is not ing oneportion of same. could be made up lower cost than a plank crossing, ow1ng to crosslng could be withdrawn. As prethe fact that the entirecrossing, or any porviously stated, however, it is immaterial tion ofsame, can be taken up and relaid how the various members constitutingthe without liability of injuring or destroying crossing are connectedtogether, so long asthe members that form the crossing; it is they arecombined in such a manner that as durable as a solid concrete crossingand they can move sufliciently with relation to can be installed at amuch lower cost than a each other to impart more or less flexibilitysolid concrete crossing, and as it does not to the crossing. v form ahard spot in the track, it does Having thus described my'invention, whatnot cause the track rails to break. Such a 'I claim, and desire tosecure by LettersPatcrossing is also a decided improvement on a cut, is:v brick crossing or crossing composed of other 1. A railway crossing,composed ofanumowing to the fact ber of members loosely connected onewith that it is so constructed that displacement of another in such amanner that they are free the bed of the track has absolutely no effectto move slightly in a vertical direction with on the crossing arid itwill not disrupt same. relation to each other without separating or Acrossing of the character herein illuspulling apart.

trated, when made of concrete blocks, can 2. A railway crossing,composed of a plube manufactured and installed at as low a rality ofrigid members connected together cost as a plank crossing, owing to thefact in such amanner that they form a flexible that the labor ofinstalling the crossing roadway whose road surface members are isconsiderably less than installing a plank free to move relatively, toeach other in a crossing; the crossing presents a neat and certain .waywithout pulling apart.

ornamental appearance; it is particularly 8. A railway crossing,composed of a plurality of rigid stituting the crossing.

members permanently connected one with another in such a manner thatthey do not interfere with the natural wave motion ofthe track rails.

4. A railway crossing, composed of rality of durable membersconnectedwlth each other in such a manner that they-formlongitudinally-dis 'o'se'd sections, each of which can flex slig tlyintermediate the ends of same.

5. A railway crossing, composed of a plurality of durable, rigid membersloosely connected together in such a manner that the crossing as anentirety has sufficient flexibility to conform approximately to the bedof the track on which it is mounted without liability of said-membersbecoming deranged or separated.

6; A railway crossing, composed ofa plurality of members arranged end toend and divided by joints that extend'transversely of the track, eachmember being connected to the members arranged at the ends of same insuch a manner that any member can move slightly in a vertical directionwithout breaking away from the othermembers con- 7 A railway crossing,composed of a plurality of members divided by joints that extendtransversely and longitudinally of the I track, and means that connectsone member to the two members arranged at the ends of same and permitssaid members to move slightly with relation to each other withoutdisruptin the crossing. 1

8. A railway crossing, composed of a plurality of rigid and durablemembers, certain ones of which are joined directly together 4 and all ofwhich are combined with the road bed in such a manner entirety hassuflicient flexibility to prevent 1t from being disrupted by naturalmovement of the bed of the track.

9. A railway crossing, composedof a plurality of relatively shortmembers, each of which is jointed to the members arranged at same andall of which are comthat prevents the cross the ends of bined with ameans ing as an entirety with relation to the track rail.

10. A railway crossing, consi ting of a skeleton-like metal structureand a road surface formed from members that are combined with saidstructure in such a manner that said members" can move upwardly anddownwardly slightly with relation to each other and also with relationto said structure.

11. A railway crossing, composed of a plurality of members that form aroadway over a track, and a skeleton-like metal structure that retainssaid members. in position vand joins each member to the members hetweenwhich it is arranged.

12. A railway crossing, comprising a plutraclqand means" members one aplurd y I 13. A railway crossing,

.rality the track rail.

the members of each that the crossing as an a *from moving verticallyreenter rality of members arranged end to end in a direction p x tendinglongitudinally of-thev that' directly-j oins said to another and memberto move slightly upwar y or downof road surface members having alinedholes that extend longitudinally of the track, and a device that passesthrough said holes and joins, said members together. I

' comprising two 14. A railway crossing, longitudinal sections arrangedon opposite sides of one rail of the track andeach com posed of aplurality of members joined together by a. means which permits thesection as an entirety to have a certain degree of flexibility, andmeans for preventing said sectionsfrom movingv laterally, away from 15.A railway crossing, comprising two ermits any comprising aplulongitudinal sections arranged on opposite sides of one rail of thetrack and each com- I posed of a plurality of comparatively rigidmembers joined together in. such a manner that the section as,anentirety can flex intermediate its ends, and means that ties saidsections together and holds them in proper position with relation to thetrack rail.

16. last railway crossing, apair of longitudinal' sections arranged onopposite sides of one rail of the track. and each composed ofa pluralityofmembers arranged end to end, rods extending section, and cross barsconnected to said rods and passing downwardly beneath the track rails soas to prevent said sections fgom being displaced with reference to saidtrack rails.

17. A railwayg'crssi ng, comprising'a plurality of transyersely disposedbars arranged in engagement rails, longitudinally-disposed rods passingthrough openings in said bars, and members mounted on said rods betweensaid bars to form a roadway over the track.

18. A railwaycrossing, com rising a plurality of transversely-disposedars arranged in parallel relation and having their opposite ends fittingbetween the base flanges and the heads of the track rails,longitudinally-disposed rods that pass through openings in said bars,and members strung on said rods to form a roadway over the track.

19. In a railway cr0ssing,.track ties, a plurality of members mounted onsaid ties that form a roadway, certain of said members directly togetherbut permits them to move vertically slightly with relation to each otherwithout disrupting the crossing.

20. A railway crossing, rality of ion is composed comprising aplutudinal sections, each of which of a plurality of memberslongitudinally throughwith the track and means that joins joinedtogether in such a manner-that the section as an entirety is free toflex slightly intermediate its ends, and means that ties said sectionstogether.

21. A railway crossing, comprising a plurality of longitudinal sections,each of which is composed of a plurality of members joined together insuch a manner that the section as an'entirety is free to flex slightlyintermediate its ends, and means for tying said sections together andfor preventing the crossin as an entirety from moving upwardly withrelation to the track rails.

22. In a railway crossing, track ties, members resting upon said trackties and separated by joints that extend transversely of the track, androds extending longitudinally of the track and passing through holes insaid members which are of'suflicient diam-' HOWARD E, BURNS.

-. Witnesses:

WELLS L. CHURCH,

GEORGE BAKEWELL.

